stripersteve

That's a great quote ! Never heard that one before, but I like it ! " Everyone wants a good deal, but there's no deal on a good 911 " .

Patrick3000

You may regret that decision, I know I did when my GT3 Touring arrived. Now I just stash the extra cars around town, my office, wife’s office, our son’s place, wherever I can find a spot. Much easier then shopping for another, already did that once

8KaboveMSL

Speed Yellow 997.2 C4S Cab w/ 73k miles PDK $56k

https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/WP0CB2A99CS754393?$ios_deeplink_path=vdp/WP0CB2A99CS754393&partner=UEA_O&campaign=UEA_O&et_id=in_ac

Man this market seems to really be going up. . .

8KaboveMSL

and another 997.2 Black PDK C4S Cab 17k miles for $61k

https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/WP0CA2A91CS793255?$ios_deeplink_path=vdp/WP0CA2A91CS793255&partner=UEA_O&campaign=UEA_O&et_id=in_ac

tlippold

Ideally I like to purchase cars locally so I can see, touch and drive them in person. However, with some cars like the 997 GTS the scarcity of the car makes this impractical.

What are people's thoughts on buying car fully remote and having a car shipped? Aside from arranging a PPI what other advise can people share?

Thanks!

sp1viper

Delete

sp1viper

Looking for my first 997.2. Want a GTS, but difficult to find mint ones below 90k'ish This is an awesome thread that has been helping me through my search. Thanks all!

Doug H

i always fly in and look over. I learned long ago. I had a 993tt delivered from Arizona in 2003 with horrible road rash and front end scratches. Dealer blamed shipper, shipper blamed dealer. Plane tickets are cheap and I usually just drive them back now if not too far away.

Quixotic1

Beautiful 2011 C4S MT Cab here with Macassar trim and full leather.

85K

https://www.naplesluxuryimports.com/...CB2A98BS755341

8KaboveMSL

That 2 tone interior w/ the Makassar wood really looks classy. . . This one might not be there for long, it looks like it is in great condition and only has 19k miles. . .

Ironman88

I bought my car from a Porsche dealership that is about 2,200 miles from where I live (purchased in October 2019.) I had been scouring the market for months at that point, and knew clearly what I was looking for. When I spotted the specific car in question, I knew that if it completely checked out that I would definitely buy it. (In other words, I was 100% ready to move on it provided that it passed each of a series of successive checks.) Being very organized going forward was of key importance. The steps of the process looked something like this:

1) Initial conversation / discussion with the salesman: I made it clear from the outset that I had a serious interest in the car in question - and that his time would not be wasted. I conveyed that being 2000+ miles away put me at a disadvantage - and that I was counting on him (and needed his full commitment) to be my "eyes and ears" so to speak. (Note - key critical element needed for success is a good salesman who is great at communications and committed to the process.)

2) Went over an initial checklist of questions with the salesman to make sure that everything listed on the website about the car was accurate (also reviewed with him in detail the CarFax on the car)

3) Had the salesman do several video "walkarounds" of the car

4) Had the salesman do a video (using a paint thickness meter) going over the car section by section to reasonably ensure no paintwork had been done on it

4) Asked the salesman to carefully inspect the car overall and to pinpoint any areas of concern and list them

5) Requested high resolution photos - breaking the car down into sections

6) Requested additional high resolution photos of closeups of any items identified as areas of concern

7) Requested to receive scanned copies of any / all service records on the car (I was lucky - there were quite a few of them)

8) Asked the dealer to provide a cost (for that specific car) for it to be classified as a "Certified Pre-owned Porsche" (required inspection in the shop for that)

9) Asked for an itemized list of the things needing to be addressed for Certification (I had no intention of having them Certify it - I just wanted to know what things from a condition standpoint were marginal or needed to be addressed)

10) With all of the above being addressed at that point - I put a deposit on the car and arranged for a PPI

11) I was reasonably certain that the car would inspect out fine from that point so I made flight reservations for the trip out to the dealership

12) On arrival at the dealership, inspected the car firsthand in detail (had a prepared checklist to stay organized and not miss anything). Drove the car. Completed the sales transaction with the dealership.

13) Arranged for shipping of the car with the selling dealership

14) Traveled back home. Developed a detailed checklist of things to review / confirm with the car at the point of delivery by the shipper (really important!)

Once you sign off on the Bill of Lading - the shipper "hightails it" and for better or worse - that car is 100% yours.

In the end I was lucky - I got a great car.

8KaboveMSL

Awesome writeup. thank you for taking the time to share your experience and the results. I recently purchased 2 Cars from dealerships very far away from me. One in Chicago and one in Nashua New Hampshire. Followed pretty much the same process (although not as detailed or thorough as @Ironman88 .

Mistakes I made:

• didn't even know that a PPI was possible in those scenarios. Lesson learned. Might have caught a few things on my 911 that would have saved me some $'s upfront by allowing me to negotiate a better price
• I had the selling dealer go ahead and have PPF and ceramic coating applied to the car. No matter how good a deal it appears to be I think it is best to have that done once you have the car and can judge how much paint correction is required as there is no guarantee that that portion of job will be done correctly. Even if it is, you won't be able to evaluate the improvement as you didn't see what it was like before the Ceramic/paint correction were done.

Differences in my approach:

• I was in the process of dealing with turned out to be a pretty significant health issue (outcome was positive) and traveling to see the car in person in the middle of the pandemic wasn't in the cards for me. If you follow Ironman88's process and can't fly for some reason you can still get good results. Of course if you have the time, means and opportunity to travel see the car, you should do so. Not everyone does.
• I made sure at the beginning of the process that the dealer was used to working w/ out of town buyers and would provide the necessary post-sale support to get the car shipped. Many dealers are familiar with the process and some even offer to handle it one your behalf (take them up if they do, more on this in next bullet). Don't work with a dealer that hasn't done it before unless you are willing to fly out and drive the car home yourself.

A few minor additional thoughts:

• It's OK to do a trade in if you can get the price you want on your car. I actually got the best offer for my 14 Cayenne Sport Diesel from the dealer I bought my 911 from. Since they were in Chicago, it was only ~$300 to ship. The shipper was contracted by the seller and I just paid for the return trip from Denver to Chicago for my Cayenne and the dealer actually picked up the cost of shipping me my 911. Seller found shipper and arranged it all. Probably got a better deal than I could get on my own. wouldn't have done the same w/ dealer in NH. In my case there was a real tax benefit to having the trade in included, probably varies from state to state.
• Make sure you closely inspect exterior and interior once car arrives. Most focus on the exterior with a shipped car. So did I. I later noticed that the trunk cover was missing from the CPO Cayenne I purchased from a Porsche dealer in NH. It took a few phone calls and emails, but since it was a CPO car, they didn't argue and just shipped me a new trunk cover. Porsche dealers do stand behind their CPO cars.
• Try to get car delivered during daytime, it will likely have quite a bit of dust on it and inspecting it at night is harder than during the day. If you can't avoid a night delivery, take a good light source with you and arrange for the car to be dropped off in a location that is as well lit as possible.
• Find and read the appropriate buyer's guide in the Rennlist forum for your car (several sub forums have sticky posts w/ invaluable content) if you are either not familiar with the car or it's your first time buying that specific model version.

@Ironman88 Might be worth starting a new thread and seeing if the moderators will make it a sticky post. Rally good content there!

sp1viper

Crazy how quick good ones sell ... I just saw this yesterday, and now its gone - 2012 Porsche 911 Carrara White S Coupe Manual w aerokit $89,900 3,100 miles:
https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/WP0AB2A93CS720733

Helios

This car isn’t a C4S it’s a base model black edition cabriolet.

hexagone

I commend you being thorough, but I think the dealership's willingness to do all that is the exception, not the rule. And I mean that especially if it's a well priced, or highly sought after car.

From having owned a lot of cars - most sellers (for me and dealers included) will be inclined to make a fair deal if 1) you make it easy for them and 2) don't ask for 10,000 things where they risk investing time for someone that ultimately might not want to buy the car or back out.

If someone is going to ask me for a PPI where I have to spend half my day lugging the car back and forth and take time off work - I'll just skip to the next person in line who is going to be less finnicky and beat me up over tiny things that a generic PPI report doesn't even have the context of. I once had a mechanic for a buyer's PPI tell them one of my cars was in a major rear accident because a trailing arm was replaced, when actually it was some threads that were crossed that it was easier/smarter to replace the damn thing than to deal with fixing the threads. That buyer wasted $300 on a PPI from a mechanic giving them the wrong information, and I lost half a day taking my car there and having a buyer get spooked about something neither him nor the mechanic had context of.

So if I can reach out to a seller and get a good understanding of them, the car, some decent photos, records, and make a deal on the spot without requiring an invasive PPI, etc. I'll very likely get someone who is fairly willing to budge on price. It has happened time and time again, great deals were found because I trusted the car to be "good enough" and "not absolutely perfect" and got a few grand off that I felt good enough with to be able to address issues if they come up.

Now, I don't bother with cars that have known chronic/catastrophic issues (997.1s, cars without IMS replaced) that require invasive inspections, which puts me int he minority of willing to buy cars without PPIs and making the seller jump through 100 hoops.

Think about a dealer whose main mission it is to move inventory - if they have a potential buyer #1 for a reasonably priced or in demand car who is asking for 50 things vs. buyer #2 who just knows what they want and can sweat some details, they are more likely to take buyer #2 and even cut them a discount to save on the hassle.

TL;DR: Make it as easy as possible for a seller to sell their car, accept small bit of risk, get a better deal. Make it hard for a seller to move their car, they'll be less likely to budge on price having invested a lot of time in the transaction.